Type of constituency Borough constituency Number of members 1 | Created from Croydon | |
County Surrey until 1965, then Greater London Created from Croydon East and Croydon West Replaced by Croydon, Croydon East, Croydon West, Croydon Central | ||
Croydon South was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Contents
It was created for the 1918 general election when the County Borough of Croydon had grown and was split into two parliamentary seats.
In 1974 the seat was renamed Croydon Central, following the 1965 addition of Purley and Coulsdon to the London Borough of Croydon, and a new seat of Croydon South was created to the south, with little overlap.
Boundaries
1918-1950: The County Borough of Croydon wards of Central, East, South, and West.
1955-1974: The County Borough of Croydon wards of Addington, Broad Green, Central, Shirley, South, and Waddon.
MPs 1918–1950
From 1950 to 1955 the seat was divided into Croydon East and Croydon West.
Elections in the 1910s
Politics and history of the constituency
The seat was created in 1918 and the first MP was Ian Malcolm, who had been the MP for all of Croydon. H.T. Muggeridge, father of Malcolm Muggeridge, fought the seat for Labour four times from 1918, later becoming MP for Romford. The seat saw a by-election in 1932, won by Herbert Williams.
Croydon South had twice seen Croydon's only Labour MPs before the 1990s. David Rees-Williams held the seat from the 1945 Labour landslide until unfavourable boundary changes in 1950. David Winnick won the seat in 1966 before losing in 1970. Otherwise the seat, and indeed the rest of Croydon, had always been firm Conservative territory.
From 1950 until 1955 the seat was divided into east and west, represented by Conservatives Herbert Williams and Richard Thompson respectively.